Latest news with #eviction
CBC
3 hours ago
- General
- CBC
Nearly 2,000 households in need of new home as Quebec's moving day nears
Social Sharing With Quebec's moving day fast approaching, more than 2,000 households across the province are still searching for housing — 320 more than at the same time last year, according to the province's housing corporation. Advocacy groups say they are bracing for more emergency calls. "There's been a lot more evictions, cases of repossessions," said Lyn O'Donnell, with the Citizen Action Committee of Verdun. "People are not only dealing with eviction. They're also dealing with the fact that they've received rent increases that, you know, like your average person just can't afford." In Montreal alone, some 270 have asked for help, the Société d'habitation du Québec (SHQ) says. Advocates warn the number is misleading. "That's just what's reported, right? So there's so much invisible homelessness involved in that. That even includes families with children," O'Donnell said. The city says help is available by calling 311. "We have enough resources, enough budget to help you find a new dwelling," said Philippe Sabourin, City of Montreal spokesperson. "We can also offer temporary resources or a temporary dwelling. We also have some resources for the storage if it's required." Help is out there — but not enough Help is also available through the SHQ and some people may be eligible for a rent supplement. But housing advocates say these resources are far from enough. "Housing is scarce, first of all. And also the program is mostly for low-income households," O'Donnell said. "And you have to have lived on the island of Montreal for the past 12 months and you have to have used up all of your own resources." O'Donnell said all of these measures are only temporary. The real solution is making more affordable housing available. Housing advocacy group Le Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) says the increasing number of households in search of a home is due to the scarcity of affordable housing in the province. The SHQ says that of the 1,989 households at risk of homelessness, 473 are already in temporary accommodations, such as with family, friends or in a hotel. WATCH | How to get help: Struggling to find a place to live by moving day? Here's how to get help 1 day ago Duration 1:57 The City of Montreal and the provincial government say they have resources for people who can't find an affordable place to live, with a housing crisis making July 1 a particularly difficult date for some. The regions with the highest number of cases include Lanaudière (294), Montreal (269) and Montérégie (235). Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for FRAPRU, said people are often hoping for a solution up until July 1, and then come forward looking for help soon after. She said some end up in their cars or camping. Assistance varies across province Although rehousing assistance is available throughout the province, the measures offered to tenants vary greatly from one region to another, said Laflamme. Not all municipalities offer the Quebec-backed rehousing assistance program like the one in Montreal, which provides temporary accommodations, moving and storage. The housing shortage is easing slightly across the province, with the housing vacancy rate at 1.8 per cent in 2024, up from 1.3 per cent in 2023, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). But this improvement does not translate into greater affordability, Laflamme said. In Montreal last year, the vacancy rate for units under $1,150 was less than one per cent. This compares to more than five per cent for units priced at a minimum of $1,675, which likely includes many recently built rental apartments, according to CMHC data. New data from Statistics Canada, released Wednesday, also shows soaring prices for available housing. The asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal was $1,930 in the first quarter of 2025 — a 70.8 per cent increase from 2019. In Montreal, the average rent increase was 18.7 per cent in 2024 for apartments that changed tenants, compared to 4.7 per cent for dwellings where a lease was renewed, according to the CMHC. Since 2018, rents have jumped 47 per cent for all apartments in the province, according to a compilation by FRAPRU based on data from the CMHC. To address this unaffordability, FRAPRU urges Quebec to double the number of social housing units in the rental stock within 15 years, which would involve the construction of at least 10,000 new social housing units per year. The government has adopted a national housing strategy and set a target of 56,000 rental units per year — but no target for social housing, laments Laflamme. Even for tenants who are not moving this year, the situation is far from ideal, as many are facing steep rent increases, said Laflamme. The average rent increase suggested by Quebec's housing tribunal was 5.9 per cent for 2025. "This year's lease renewal period has been extremely difficult," said Laflamme, citing a large number of callers looking for ways to mitigate rent increases.
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
An entire village in Dorset is facing eviction – proof that private money holds all the power in rural England
Power hides by setting us against each other. This is never more true than in the countryside, where the impacts of an extreme concentration of ownership and control are blamed on those who have nothing to do with it. Rural people are endlessly instructed that they're oppressed not by the lords of the land, but by vicious and ignorant townies – the 'urban jackboot' as the Countryside Alliance used to call it – stamping on their traditions. Near Bridport in Dorset right now, an entire village is facing eviction, following the sale of the Bridehead Estate for about £30m. The official new owner, Bridehead Estate Ltd, is registered to the same address, with the same officers, as a company called Belport. The Telegraph reports that the estate 'was bought by Belport, a private equity firm, on behalf of a wealthy client last autumn', but no one knows who the client is. So far I've received no response to the questions I sent to Belport. The people of Littlebredy, a village of 32 homes, wholly owned by the estate, say they have been ordered to leave from January. At the beginning of this month, access to parts of the 800-hectare (2,000-acre) grounds, widely enjoyed by local people, was terminated, with red signs to this effect and padlocks on all the entrances. No one knows who is doing this to them. The sense of powerlessness is overwhelming. One person has been evicted already, to make way for an estate office. When she complained about her treatment on social media, the first reply stated, without a shred of evidence: 'You're being evicted so that young fighting age male refugees, who are escaping war in France, can have somewhere safe to live, who, as far as our government is concerned, have priority over you … VOTE REFORM!' That's how divide and rule works: never mind the anonymous plutocrat evicting her, the true culprits, somehow, are asylum seekers. We are lectured by rightwing parties and the rightwing media about the need for 'integration'. But that word is used only as a weapon against immigrants. It is not they who rip communities apart, tear people from their homes and shut us out of the land, causing social disintegration. It is the power of money. But look, a spider! The cosmopolitan city, swarming with immigrants and trans people, is coming to get you! It will terminate the traditions country people love and impose its own culture instead. It is drummed into our heads that what rural people want is different to what the oppressive urbanites desire. But it's not true. Embarrassingly for the self-professed guardians of the countryside, some of the evidence comes from their own surveys. Future Countryside – which tells us it is 'powered by the Countryside Alliance Foundation', the charitable arm of the Countryside Alliance – commissioned polling in 2023. Its question about a wider right to roam in the countryside was phrased in a way that made it sound threatening: 'To what extent do you agree that the public should have the 'right to roam' meaning that anyone can wander in the open countryside regardless of whether the land is privately or publicly owned?' Even so, there was almost no difference between the responses of urban and rural people: 55% of urban people and 54% of rural people agreed it was a good idea. Even more strikingly, when asked which political party 'would do the most to prioritise/protect/promote the countryside?', only 9% each of urban and rural people named the Conservatives, while 38% in both categories said the Green party. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these answers failed to find their way into Future Countryside's public presentation of the results. Instead, the only mention of a right to roam was a comment from an anonymous rural respondent: 'They weren't brought up in the countryside. They think they can wander across all the fields with the right to roam.' Links to both the raw polling data and the public presentation on the organisation's website currently show a '404 error' when you try to open them. Strangely, writing a year after these results were published, the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, claimed that a wider right to roam is 'completely contradictory to what the public actually wants'. With admirable chutzpah, he accused those calling for it of waging a 'culture war in the countryside'. When YouGov framed the question more objectively, for a poll commissioned by the Right to Roam campaign, it found that 68% of urban people and 68% of rural people supported it. It also discovered, in stark contrast to the claims of certain rural 'guardians' who call it 'the social glue that keeps rural communities together', that opposition to hunting with dogs is strong everywhere: 78% of urban people and 74% of rural people are against it. As the access campaigner Jon Moses points out in an article for the Lead, 'the issues over which we're told we're most divided are often the issues on which we actually most agree'. That view is supported by some fascinating research published in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. It found that while in several other western countries there is a stark political divide between urban and rural people, this does not apply in Britain. 'We do not find any evidence that rural Britons are more resentful, dissatisfied or 'left behind' compared to their urban counterparts.' On cultural issues, it found, 'ruralites are often less – not more – authoritarian than urbanites … and are less likely to support an undemocratic leader'. We are fundamentally the same people, despite the best efforts of the culture warriors to divide us. But we must be persuaded that other people don't want what we want: that we are the outsiders, the interlopers, the weird minority, pushing against the social current. In reality, the weird minority are the 1% who own half of all the land in England, and the subset of that group who hide their ownership behind front companies and opaque trusts. If the government's proposed changes to the Land Registry go ahead, it may become easier to discover the true owners of places such as Bridehead, though I suspect we will still struggle. On 5 July, the Right to Roam campaign will organise a peaceful trespass at Bridehead, to draw attention to the almost feudal powers blighting rural life. The real conflict is not town v country, but money and power v people. That holds, regardless of where you live. Never let powerful people tell you who you are. George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist On Tuesday 16 September, join George Monbiot, Mikaela Loach and other special guests discussing the forces driving climate denialism, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Caravan park resident left homeless after being told to immediately leave her home in northern Tasmania
At 82, Kathleen Philp never expected to be homeless. She bought a cottage at the Beauty Point Tourist Park in northern Tasmania in March 2023, where she lived until earlier this month, when park management sent her an eviction notice. Now, she's staying in her partner's van, but many nights are too cold. In late April, park management told Ms Philp it planned to remove her driveway to install a walkway. She replied she did not accept the decision, and when the workers arrived on June 6, she refused to move her car from the driveway. The termination notice came later that day. "As a direct result of your actions, we were unable to complete our scheduled works today," the notice reads. "Additionally, your actions in filming and photographing our staff without consent are inappropriate and unacceptable. Ms Philp said she only took photos of the workers attempting to begin the demolition of her driveway on the advice of a lawyer, to document what was happening. That same day, management turned off her power and erected a construction fence around her property, blocking her from accessing her car. Three days later, she was issued a notice directing her to remove her cottage from the property within 28 days, or the park would sell or dispose of it. Park management declined to comment. The Beauty Point Tourist Park is home to about 60 residents, who own their homes but pay fortnightly site fees. Ms Philp is one of a number of residents who have been issued eviction notices since issues arose in February last year concerning compliance matters and the future of the park as a place of residence. Resident John Lowe, who was evicted in July last year, took his case to the Supreme Court. A few days before Mr Lowe's eviction, the park brought in new rules which said "site users" could be evicted without reason. The Supreme Court judge said the park had attempted to "wholly rewrite" the terms of stay and "deprive long-term residents at the caravan park of any rights whatsoever". He ruled those terms and conditions, and Mr Lowe's eviction, were invalid. The judge also said the case demonstrated why Tasmania needed to bring in protections for long-term residents of caravan parks. Tasmania is the only Australian jurisdiction that does not regulate caravan parks for residential use. Following the ruling in Mr Lowe's case, the Liberals committed to bringing in legislation. Premier Jeremy Rockliff criticised the Beauty Point Tourist Park for evicting Ms Philp. "What we need to do, as we were doing, was change legislation — we're in the process of drafting legislation to fix that very serious problem." Tasmanian Labor promised to bring in legislation to protect caravan park residents last year, after issues at the Beauty Point Tourist Park first became public. Bass candidate Janie Finlay has been advocating for park residents. "Time and time again, people are being treated in a way that is impacting them personally and also financially, emotionally and also impacting their health," she said. "It's a horrible thing to have happen in our community, so we want to make sure that as a matter of urgency, these matters are dealt with, not just for Beauty Point, but for communities in caravan parks all across Tasmania. Ms Philp is planning to take her case to court, if park management does not let her return. "Everyone in the Beauty Point Tourist Park, they just love it there, and they're also good people, hardworking people, and they're all retired. "The oldest one in there is 95 — how can you, at 95, uproot and find somewhere else to live in this day and age, with the economy the way it is?"
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Kirkby residents at unsafe flats 'set to lose everything'
A woman who has been told she must leave her flat after the building was ruled unsafe said she is "set to lose everything".Arunee Leerasiri bought her flat in a Willow Rise in Kirkby, Merseyside in 2023 and works from this year the flats, along with another block Beech Rise, were declared unsafe after failures by the building's management companies and agents to carry out required works led to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service issuing an enforcement notice against the buildings' Responsible as the prospect of eviction hangs over her, Ms Leerasiri said she is "broken" and overwhelmed by the crisis. Residents at the flats, which are comprised of both rental tenants and homeowners, were told they must leave in a private development, Knowsley Council had stepped in to fund a "waking watch" service, where the flats were patrolled 24 hours a day to keep residents safe - at a cost of £3,000 a leader Graham Morgan said the council had little control over the building and the cost to the council was has now asked the government for financial help for flat owners who were at risk of losing half of the 160 households had already left, 80 flats were still occupied, mostly by people who owned them or had mortgages on them. "I am losing both my home and my work place" Ms Leerasiri said."I feel unsafe being here, but I don't know what to do and I don't know what the future holds."It's hard not knowing when I will have to move out and who is going to cover my costs."I have home insurance but they say because the problem is not with my flat but with the communal areas, I am not covered." 'Traumatic' Ms Leerasiri said she invested her life savings into the property."The stress has been overwhelming. I am not classed as homeless yet so it's hard to find help. How are we expected to live like this?" she said."Everything is being taken away from me. Being told to leave so suddenly without any guarantees is traumatic."Speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside Mr Morgan said it was an "absolutely horrendous situation" and said the council had met with the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government Alex Norris who was "very sympathetic" and was assessing the said a multi-agency meeting was set to take place this week after which residents would be updated. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'I am losing both my home and my workplace'
A woman who has been told she must leave her flat after the building was ruled unsafe said she is "set to lose everything". Arunee Leerasiri bought her flat in a Willow Rise in Kirkby, Merseyside in 2023 and works from home. Earlier this year the flats, along with another block Beech Rise, were declared unsafe after failures by the building's management companies and agents to carry out required works led to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service issuing an enforcement notice against the buildings' Responsible Persons. Now as the prospect of eviction hangs over her, Ms Leerasiri said she is "broken" and overwhelmed by the crisis. Residents at the flats, which are comprised of both rental tenants and homeowners, were told they must leave in June. Although a private development, Knowsley Council had stepped in to fund a "waking watch" service, where the flats were patrolled 24 hours a day to keep residents safe - at a cost of £3,000 a day. Council leader Graham Morgan said the council had little control over the building and the cost to the council was unsustainable. He has now asked the government for financial help for flat owners who were at risk of losing everything. While half of the 160 households had already left, 80 flats were still occupied, mostly by people who owned them or had mortgages on them. "I am losing both my home and my work place" Ms Leerasiri said. "I feel unsafe being here, but I don't know what to do and I don't know what the future holds. "It's hard not knowing when I will have to move out and who is going to cover my costs. "I have home insurance but they say because the problem is not with my flat but with the communal areas, I am not covered." Ms Leerasiri said she invested her life savings into the property. "The stress has been overwhelming. I am not classed as homeless yet so it's hard to find help. How are we expected to live like this?" she said. "Everything is being taken away from me. Being told to leave so suddenly without any guarantees is traumatic." Speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside Mr Morgan said it was an "absolutely horrendous situation" and said the council had met with the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government Alex Norris who was "very sympathetic" and was assessing the situation. He said a multi-agency meeting was set to take place this week after which residents would be updated. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230. 'Becoming homeless from unsafe flats catastrophic' Tower block flats costing £3k a day to keep safe Flats evacuated after firework sparks blaze Knowsley Council
